Notes and Queries Vol. IV., No. 93, Saturday, August 9. 1851

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

I have thought that the following old letter, relative to a family once of some distinction, and especially as describing a very remarkable individual, from whom a multitude of living persons are immediately descended, might be of sufficient interest to occupy a place in "NOTES AND QUERIES." It has never, that I am aware of, been published; but it has long been preserved, amongst similar papers, with the accompanying endorsement:—"Though Mr. Ernle's letter relating to Lady Hopton and her family contains some fabulous accounts, and is in some parts a little unintelligible, yet it may be urged in confirmation of the truth of the several descents therein mentioned. He was the son of Sir John Ernle, and could not but have some general knowledge of his grandmother's relations."

This Mr. Ernle, afterwards knighted, died A.D. 1686.

Sir Arthur Hopton lived at Witham Friary, co. Somerset, and the heroine of this document was, according to the pedigree in Sir R. C. Hoare's Monastic Remains of Witham, &c., Rachel, daughter of Edmund Hall of Gretford, co. Lincoln, Esq. The date of Sir Arthur's death is not there given, but he was made a K.B. in 1603.

C. W. B.

"I will give you as good an account as I can remember of our wise & good Grandmother Hopton, who I think was one Hall's daughter of Devonshire without title, & had an elder brother, without child, who said to his younger brother's wife, who was then with child, if she would come to his house, & lie in, he would give his estate to it if a daughter, & if a son it should fare never the worse: so she had my grandmother, & he bred her up & married her to Sir Arthur Hopton of Somerset: who had 4000 a year, & she as much.

"By him she had 18 children; 10 daughters married; whose names were: Lady Bacon, Lady Smith, Lady Morton, Lady Bannister, & Lady Fettiplace; Bingham, Baskett, Cole, Thomas, & my Grandmother Ernle; these daughters & their children have made a numerous company of relations. The duke of Richmond & Lord Maynard married our Aunt Bannister's daughters & heirs (one to Rogers, the other to Bannister).[1] Fettiplace, which was also Lord Jones, his daughter & heiress married Lord Lumley, now Scarbro.

[1] ("The Lady Bannister's first husband was Mr. Rogers, of Brenson (hodiè Bryanston) near Blandford, in Dorsetshire: by him she had the Dutchess of Richmond, who was heiress to him: she had another daughter of Sir Robt. Bannister, who married Lord Mainard."—Added in another Version.)

"Cole's heir to Popham of Wilts: & Hungerford, & Warnford married Jones, & some Mackworth, & Wyndham in Wales; some Morgan, & Cammish, & Kern, with many others that I have forgot. The sons were Mr Robt Hopton, Sir Thomas, Sir Arthur. Robt had one son, wch was the Lord Hopton of great worth, who married the Lord Lewen's widow, and had no child: so the estate went to the daughters. But our Grandfather Hopton, having so good an estate, thought he might live as high as he pleased, & not run out: but one day he was going from home but cd not, but told his Lady she wd be left in great trouble, for the great debts he had made on his estate; & that he knew he should live but few days, & cd not die in peace, to think what affliction he should leave her in: so she desired him to be no way concerned for his debts, for he owed not a penny to any one. So he died of a gangrene in his toe in a few days. Now she had set up an Iron-work, & paid all he owed, unknown to him. And she married all her daughters to great estates, & great families: her eldest, I think, to one Smith, who was a younger son, & went factor to a merchant into Spain; he had a very severe master & was very melancholy & walked one morning in Spain intending to go & sell himself a galley-slave to the Turks: but an old man met him, & asked him why he was so melancholy; bid him cheer up himself, & not go about what he intended, for his elder brother was dead, letters were coming to him to return home to his estate; bid him consider & believe what he said, & that when he went for England, the first house he entered, after this landing, he would marry the gentleman's eldest daughter: which he did. The Lady Hopton's way of living was very great: she had 100 in her family; all sorts of trades; and when good servants married she kept the families, & bred them up to several trades. She rose at six of the Clock herself: went to the Iron-work, & came in about 9; went with all her family to prayers, & after dinner she & her children & grand-children went to their several works with her in the dining-room, where she spun the finest sheets that are. Every year she had all her children & grandchildren met together at her house; & before they went away, would know if any little or great animosities were between any of them; if so, she would never let them go, till they were reconciled."

There were sold of The Times of Tuesday, Feb. 10th, 1840, containing an account of the Royal nuptials, 30,000 copies, and the following curious calculations were afterwards made respecting this publication. The length of a column of The Times is twenty-two inches. If every copy of The Times then printed could be cut into forty-eight single columns, and if those forty-eight columns were tacked to each other, they would extend 494 miles and 1,593 yards. To give some idea of the extent of that distance, it may be sufficient to say that one of the wheels of the mail which runs from Falmouth to London, and again from London to Easingwold, a small town twelve miles beyond York, might run all the way on the letter-press so printed, except the last 167 yards. The same extent of letter-press would reach from London to Paris, and back again from Paris to Canterbury, and a little further. The 30,000 papers, if opened out and joined together, would cover a length of twenty-two miles and 1,280 yards; or, in other words, would reach from The Times office, in Printing-house Square, to the entrance hall in Windsor Castle, leaving a few yards for stair carpets. It is recorded that 20,000 copies were in the hands of the newsmen at eight o'clock in the morning. Since 1840, the circulation of The Times has greatly increased; and what was then deemed wonderful on an extraordinary occasion, is now exceeded daily by 8,000 copies—the present daily circulation being about 38,000 copies, which are worked by greatly improved machinery at the rate of between 8,000 to 10,000 per hour. On the 2nd of last May, The Times containing an account of the opening of the Great Exhibition by the Queen, circulated to the enormous number of 52,000 copies, the largest number ever known of one daily newspaper publication. Nothing can illustrate more forcibly than these statements the great utility of the machinery employed in multiplying with so miraculous a rapidity such an immense number of copies. When we look at the great talent—the extensive arrangement—the vast amount of information on a variety of topics—the immense circulation—the rapidity with which it is thrown off, and the correctness of the details of The Times paper—we are constrained to pronounce it the most marvellous political journal the world has ever seen. What would our forefathers have said to this wonderful broadsheet, which conveys information of the world's movements to the teeming population of the United Kingdom, and also to the people of other and distant climes.

H. M. BEALBY.

North Brixton.

—Days of the week:

Tuesday and Wednesday are lucky days.

Thursday has one lucky hour, viz. the hour before the sun rises.

Friday is unlucky.

It is very unlucky to turn a featherbed on a Sunday; my housemaid says she would not turn my bed on a Sunday on any account.

My informant cannot recollect the consequences of sneezing on Wednesday and Thursday.

If you sneeze on a Saturday night after the candle is lighted, you will next week see a stranger you never saw before.

A new moon seen over the right shoulder is lucky, over the left shoulder unlucky, and straight before prognosticates good luck to the end of the moon.

Hair and nails should always be cut during the waning of the moon.

Whatever you think of when you see a star shooting, you are sure to have.

When you first see the new moon in the new year, take your stocking off from one foot, and run to the next style; when you get there, between the great toe and the next, you will find a hair, which will be the colour of your lover's.

When you first see the new moon after mid-summer, go to a stile, turn your back to it, and say,—

—Pluck yarrow from a young man's grave, saying as you do so—

Sleep with the yarrow under the pillow.

J. M. (4)

Some time ago I was in the neighbourhood of Camelford (a small town in Cornwall), and inquiring the name of a church I saw in the distance, was told that its name was Advent, though it was generally called Saint Teen. Now Teen in Cornish = to light. Can this name have been applied from any peculiar ceremonies observed here during Advent?

J. M. (4)

—I obtained the following inscription from a person in the country, and you wish to make a "note" of it, it is perfectly at your service. The arrangement of the letters is curious.

R. H.

—In Brooke's Abridgement, tit. "Chatteles," it appears that in the 21st Hen. VII., A.D. 1505, it was held that though the frame-work of the windows belonged to the heir, the glass was the property of the executors, and might therefore be removed by them, "quar le meason est perfite sauns le glasse." In A.D. 1599 Lord Coke informs us it was in the Common Pleas "resolved per totam curiam, that glass annexed to windows by nails, or in any other manner, could not be removed; for without glass it is no perfect house."

J. O. M.

—Mr. D'Israeli congratulates himself with much satisfaction, in his Essay on the Literary Character, both in his Preface, p. xxix., and in the text, p. 187. vol. i., in having written this immortal sentence:

"The defects of great men are the consolation of the dunces."

—more particularly as it appears Lord Byron had "deeply underscored it." Perhaps he was unaware that Pope, in a letter to Swift, Feb. 16, 1733, had said:

"A few loose things sometimes fall from men of wit by which censorious fools judge as ill of them as they possibly can, for their own comfort."

And that Goldsmith says:

"The folly of others is ever most ridiculous to those who are themselves most foolish."—Citizen of the World.

JAMES CORNISH.

In the 231st number of that excellent New York periodical, The Literary World, published on the 5th of July, there is an article on "Steamboats and Steamboating in the South West," in which I find the following passage:—

"I mentioned the refrain of the firemen. Now as a particular one is almost invariably sung by Negroes when they have anything to do with or about a fire; whether it be while working at a New Orleans fire-engine, or crowding wood into the furnaces of a steamboat; whether they desire to make an extra racket at leaving, or evince their joy at returning to a port, it may be worth recording; and here it is:

"The last line is given by all hands with great vim (sic) and volume; and as for the chorus itself, you will never meet or pass a boat, you will never behold the departure or arrival of one, and you will never witness a New Orleans fire, without hearing it."

The writer says nothing about the origin of this Negro melody, and therefore he is, I presume, unaware of it. But many of your readers will at once recognise the spirited lines, which when once they are read in Walter Scott's Pirate, have somehow a strange pertinacity in ringing in one's ears, and creep into a nook of the memory, from which they ever and anon insist on emerging to the lips. The passage occurs at the end of the fifth chapter of the third volume, where the pirates recapture their runaway captain:—

"They gained their boat in safety, and jumped into it, carrying along with them Cleveland, to whom circumstances seemed to offer no other refuge, and pushed off for their vessel, singing in chorus to their oars an old ditty, of which the natives of Kirkwall could only hear the first stanza:

So run the lines in the original edition, but in the revised one of the collected novels in forty-eight volumes, and in all the subsequent ones, the first two stand thus:

This alteration strikes one as anything but an improvement, and it has suggested a doubt, which I beg to apply to the numerous and well-informed body of your readers to solve. Are these lines the production of Walter Scott, as they are generally supposed to be; or are they really the fragment of an old ditty? The alteration at the commencement does not seem one that would have found favour in the eyes of an author, but rather the effect of a prompting of memory. I believe, indeed, the lines are inserted in the volume called The Poetry of the Author of the Waverley Novels (which I saw some years ago, but cannot refer to at this moment), but that is not decisive.

There is a case in point, which is worth quoting on its own account. In Peveril of the Peak, in the celebrated scene of the interview between Buckingham and Fenella, where Fenella leaps from the window, and Buckingham hesitates to follow, there is this passage:

"From a neighbouring thicket of shrubs, amongst which his visitor had disappeared, he heard her chant a verse of a comic song, then much in fashion, concerning a despairing lover who had recourse to a precipice.

This verse, also, if I mistake not, appears in The Poetry of the Author of Waverley, and is certainly set down by almost every reader as the production of Sir Walter. But in the sixth volume of Anderson's Poets of Great Britain, at page 574. in the works of Walsh, occurs a song called "The Despairing Lover," in which we are told that—

In this instance it is shown that Sir Walter was not indebted for the comic song to his wonderful genius, but to his stupendous memory; and it is just possible that it may be so in the other, in which case one would be very glad to see the remainder of the "old ditty."

T. W.

—I have long been very curious to know whether Milton was an Anglo-Saxon scholar. He compiled a history of the Saxon period: had he the power of access to the original sources? Is there any ground for supposing that he had read our Saxon Paradise Lost; I mean the immortal poetry of Cædmon? If he really knew nothing of this ancient relic, then it may well be said, that the poems of Cædmon and of Milton afford the most striking known example of coincident poetic imagination.

I should be extremely obliged to any of your learned correspondents who would bring the faintest ray of evidence to bear upon this obscure question.

The similarity of the two poems has been noticed long ago, e.g. by Sir F. Palgrave in The Archæologia, xxiv. I know not whether he was the first; I think Conybeare was beforehand with him.

J. E.

Oxford, Aug. 2. 1851.

—What is the origin of this popular phrase? It dates anterior to the time of Sir Thomas More, an anecdote in whose chancellorship thus illustrates it. An attorney in his court, named Tubb, gave an account in court of a cause in which he was concerned, which the Chancellor (who, with all his gentleness, loved a joke) thought so rambling and incoherent, that he said at the end of Tubb's speech, "This is a tale of a Tubb;" plainly showing that the phrase was then familiarly known.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

—When was the obelisk in Egypt first so called? Why was it so called? What is the most popular work on Egypt for a full description of it?

J. B. J.

Liverpool, July 28. 1851.

—In a list of the rating of the incumbents of the diocese of Ely, A. D. 1609, towards the support of the army, preserved by Cole, several are returned for "a pair of curols."

"Mr. Denham for his vicarage of Cherry Hinton to find (jointly with the Vicar of Impington and Caldecote) a pair of Curols with a pike furnished."

What is the meaning of the word "Curol," supposing Cole to have used it aright?

E. V.

—Lord Mahon, in his History of England, second edit. vol. ii. p. 66., in speaking of the death of the first Earl Cowper, after saying "His memory deserves high respect," &c., adds, "And though it seems that a by-word was current of 'Cowper law, to hang a man first and then judge him,' I believe that it proceeded from party resentment, rather than from any real fault;" and in a note refers to the evidence at Lord Wintoun's trial. Is not Lord Mahon mistaken in supposing that this saying refers to Lord Cowper? Should it not be "Cupar Law," meaning the town of that name? I see in Lord Wintoun's trial, where his lordship uses the expression, he adds, "as we used to say in our country." If my supposition is correct, can any of your correspondents say how the proverb arose?

C. DE D.

—I have an impression of an oval ecclesiastical seal, the matrix of which is said to have been found near Kilkenny. The device is the Ascension of the Virgin, beneath which is a shield charged with the royal arms; the three fleur de lis in the first and fourth quarterings showing the seal to be, comparatively speaking, modern. The legend, in Lombardic capitals, runs as follows:—"+ SGILLVM + GĀRDIĀNI + GRV̅WVCĒSIS +." Query, Does "GRV̅WVCĒSIS" mean "of Greenwich?"

In the State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII., vol. iii. p. 285., an abbey in Ireland is said to be of the "order of Greenewich." Query, What order was this?

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny, July 19. 1851.

—This work is rarely to be met with in a perfect state; but there is one plate about which there exists a doubt, viz. a folding plate or map of the estates of John Perceval, Earl of Egmont.

It would be satisfactory perhaps to many of the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES," as well as to myself, to know whether any gentleman possesses a copy of the work with such a plan.

H. T. E.

Clyst St. George.

—Can any of your botanical or entomological correspondents help me to the name of the grub that is apt to become a chrysalis on the Linaria minor (Antirrhinum minus of Linnæus)? For yesterday, in a chalky field in Berkshire, I found several cocoons of one particular kind on the above plant (itself not common in these parts), and I did not see it on any other plant in the field, although I spent some time in looking about.

J. E.

Oxford, July 29.

—VARRO states he is "well acquainted with an admirable portrait of the poet, bearing date 1593." Perhaps he could give a satisfactory answer to a Query relative to the engraved portraits of Spenser which appeared in one of the numbers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" for last April, and which was not been yet answered.

E. M. B.

—In the Athenæum for Aug. 17, 1850, in a review of Wallis's Glimpses of Spain, I find the following remark:—

"Mr. Wallis imputes a want of judgment and of 'earnest desire' for the objects of his mission to Mr. Borrow personally, on the ground that he—being, as all know, sent out by the Bible Society to circulate the Protestant Scriptures—did not, instead of attempting to fulfil that special object of his mission, employ himself in diffusing the Roman Catholic version of the Vulgate set forth by the Spanish hierarchy."

It is well known that the Bible Society keeps on its shelves both the Protestant and Roman Catholic versions of French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Its endeavours at present are, I believe, confined to attempting to circulate the Roman Catholic versions, on the ground that it is impossible to circulate the more correct Protestant ones. My Queries are:—

1. Was Mr. Borrow sent out by the Bible Society to circulate the Protestant Scriptures?

2. Whose translation of the Vulgate was set forth by the Spanish hierarchy?

E. M. B.

"Dogmatism is nothing but puppyism come to its full growth."

I find this quotation in a leader of The Times. Can you or any of your readers inform me of its origin?

?

—A reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES," who subscribes himself A LOVER OF BELLS, has kindly referred me to a passage in Hume's History of England, in which it is said that, according to a statute of Athelstan, "a ceorle or husbandman who had been able to purchase five hides of land, and had a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a bell," was raised to the rank of a Thane. The marginal reference in Hume is to Selden's Titles of Honor; and in that work the statue is then given:

"If a churle or a countryman so thrived that hee had fully five hides of his owne land, a church, and a kitchen, a bel-house, a borough-gate with a seate, and any distinct office in the king's court, then was he henceforth of equall honour or dignitie with a Thane."

Selden considers that the bel-house was the dining-hall to which the guests and family were summoned by the ringing of a bell. He thinks the word corresponds with tinello, tinelo, and tinel, the Italian, Spanish, and French words for a "public hall" or "dining-room,"—"so named, because the tin or tingling of a bell at the times of dinner or supper in it were signified by it."

I beg to ask whether the existing knowledge of the details of Saxon architecture substantiates Selden's view; and whether this bell was also the alarum-bell of the castle, hanging in an outside turret?

Many thanks to my correspondent, and to "NOTES AND QUERIES" for the introduction to his notice.

ALFRED GATTY.

—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what year the new moon last fell on the 1st of January? I am no astronomer, but I believe the moon's cycles is a period of nineteen years, and that whenever the new moon falls on the 1st January, the cycle begins.

BENBOW.

Birmingham.

[The above matter is made the more puzzling to all who are not astronomers, by the pertinacity with which popular writers persist in speaking of the moon's motions as if they were regular.

There is no particular beginning to the cycle of nineteen years: anybody may make it begin when he pleases. What it means is this: that in any set of nineteen years, the new and full moons generally (not always) fall on the same days as in the preceding nineteen years. For instance, in 1831, the 14th of March was a day of new moon: go on nineteen years, that is, to the 14th of March, 1850; most probably, not certainly, this must be a day of new moon. It happens, however, otherwise; for in 1850 the new moon is on the 13th. But in the Aprils of both years, the new moons are on the 12th; in the Junes, on the 10th. All that can be said is, that where any day of any year is new moon, most probably that day nineteen years is new moon also, and certainly either the day before or the day after. In that cycle of nineteen years, which is called the cycle of the golden number, there is an arbitrary beginning, which has something to do with the new moon falling near the 1st of January. The cycle in which we now are, began (that is, had the year marked 1) in 1843.

To find the last time when the new moon fell on the 1st of January with certainty, would be no easy problem for any but an astronomer. The nearest which our correspondent can do is this. Take Mr. De Morgan's recently published Book of Almanacs, and turn to almanac 37. Take the day in question (Jan. 1), and from the first of the Roman numbers written opposite (xxx.) subtract one (xxix.). Look back into the new style index (p. 7.), then any one year which has the epact 29 is very likely to have the new moon on the 1st of January; epact 30 may also have it. Now, on looking, we find that we are not in that period of the world's existence at which epact 29 makes its appearance; no such thing has occurred since 1699, nor will occur until 1900. We are then in a period in which new moons on the 1st of January are comparatively infrequent. Our best chance is when the epact is 30, as in 1843: here there is a narrow miss of what we want, for it was new moon on the day previous, as late as seven in the evening.

Our correspondent's notion that the moon's cycle begins with a new moon on the 1st of January, is probably derived from this, that the calendar is so contrived that for a very long period the years which have 1 for their golden number, have a new moon near the 1st of January, either on it, or within a day of it.]

—At a sale of books by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, a copy of Cocker's Arithmetic was sold for 8l. 10s., date 1678, said to be one of the only two extant. It is stated Dr. Dibdin had never seen any edition printed in the seventeenth century, and mentions the thirty-second as the earliest he had met with. I have in my possession a copy bearing date 1694, seeming to be one of a further impression of the first edition, as it gives no edition, but simply has in the title page:

"This impression is corrected and amended with many additions throughout the whole."

"London: Printed by J. R. for T. P., and are to be sold by John Back, at the Black Boy on London Bridge, 1694."

Perhaps you can give me some information on the edition, if you think it a fit subject for your valuable publication.

E. K. JUTT.

Frome, Somerset.

[Mr. De Morgan, in his Arithmetical Books, says that the earliest edition he ever possessed is that of 1685: and what edition was not stated. The fourth edition was of 1682, the twentieth of 1700. The matters cited by our correspondent, which we have omitted, are in all, or nearly all, editions. We have heard of three copies of the first edition: one sold in Mr. Halliwell's sale, one in the library of the Roman Catholic College at Oscott, and one sold by Puttick and Simpson, as above, in April last: but we cannot say that these are three different copies, though we suspect it. Our correspondent's edition is not mentioned by any one. The fifty-second edition, by Geo. Fisher, appeared in 1748, according to the Catalogue of the Philosophical Society of Newcastle.]

—Will some one of your correspondents kindly inform me what are the elementary works necessary for gaining a knowledge of Sanskrit?

DELTA.

[Wilson's Sanskrit Grammar (the 2nd edition), and the Hitopadesa, edited by Johnson, are the best elementary works.]

—I request the favour to be informed where are the Townley MSS.? They are quoted by Sir H. Nicolas in Scrope and Grosvenor Rolls. Also where are the MSS. formerly penes Earl of Egmont, often quoted in the History of the House of Yvery? And a folio of Pedigrees by Camden Russet?

S. S.

[The Townley Heraldic Collections are in the British Museum, among the Additional MSS., Nos. 14,829-14,832. 14,834. In the same collection, No. 6,226. p. 100., are Bishop Clayton's Letters to Sir John Perceval, first Earl of Egmont.]

—In an edition of The Holy Bible, with TWENTY THOUSAND EMENDATIONS: London, 1841, I read as follows, at Job v. 7.: "For man is NOT born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards." Query 1. Is there any authority from MSS., &c. for the insertion of the word "not"? 2. Is this insertion occasioned by the oversight of the printer or of the editor?

N.

[There is no authority for the insertion of the word "not," that we can find, either in MSS. or commentators. As to the oversight of the printer or editor we cannot speak; but are rather inclined to attribute that and other emendations to the second-sight of one of the parties concerned. Our correspondent will find Dr. Conquest's emandated Bible ably criticised by one of the best Hebrew scholars of the day in the Jewish Intelligencer, vol. ix. p. 84.]

The defence of Cardinal Bellarmin set up by your correspondent J. W. CT. is not new, and is exceedingly plausible at first sight. Allow me, however, to direct the attention of your readers to the following reply to a similar defence, which I take from the Sequel to Letters to M. Gondon, by Dr. Wordsworth, Canon of Westminster, pp. 10. 11.:

"I would first beg leave to observe that my three reviewers, in their zeal to speak for Cardinal Bellarmine, have not allowed him to speak for himself. They seem not to have remembered that this very passage was severely censured in his life-time, and that in the Review which he wrote of his own works, by way of explanation, he endeavoured to set up a defence for it, which is wholly at variance with their apologies for him. He says, 'When I affirmed that, if the Pope commanded a vice or forbad a virtue, the church would be bound to believe virtue to be evil and vice good, I was speaking concerning doubtful acts of virtue or vice; for if he ordered a manifest vice, or forbad a manifest virtue, it would be necessary to say with St. Peter, We must obey God rather than man.' Recognitio Librorum omnium Roberti Bellarmini ab ipso edita, Ingolstad, 1608, p. 19. 'Ubi diximus quod si Papa præciperet vitium aut prohiberet virtutem, Ecclesia teneretur credere virtutem esse malam et vitium esse bonum, locuti sumus de actibus dubiis virtutum aut vitiorum; nam si præciperet manifestum vitium aut prohiberet manifestam virtutem, dicendum esset cum Petro obedire oportet magis Deo quam hominibus.'

"This is his own defence; let it be received for what it is worth; it differs entirely from that which the reviewers make for him."

It would occupy too much of your valuable space to insert the whole of Dr. Wordsworth's observations, which, however, every one who is desirous of thoroughly investigating the subject, ought to read and consider.

TYRO.

Dublin.

In the 1st volume of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, pp. 345., &c., and in subsequent volumes, an interesting account, by J. W. Thornton, Esq., of Boston, may be found of the "Gookins of America," who are descendants of Sir Vincent Gookin, Knt., to whom your correspondents refer.

Mr. Thornton explains the omission of the descendants of Vincent and Daniel in the pedigree found in Berry's Kent, p. 113., and which is from the original visitation in Heralds' College, by the fact, that they probably went to the co. Cork, and Daniel from thence to Virginia. He cites undoubted proof that Daniel arrived in Virginia in November, 1621, and was one of twenty-six patentees to whom, in 1620, King James granted a patent of land in that colony, they having "undertaken to transport great multitudes of persons and cattle to Virginia." In 1626 this Daniel is described in a deed as of "Carygoline, in the county of Cork, within the kingdom of Ireland, Esquire." In February 1630 a deed is recorded, made by "Daniel Gookin, of Newport Newes, Virginia, the younger, Gentleman." Upon the records of the Court of James City, held Nov. 22, 1642, Captain John Gookin is mentioned. Mr. Thornton infers that the elder Daniel returned to Ireland, and that Daniel the younger, and Captain John Gookin, were his sons. During the religious troubles which arose in Virginia, Daniel, junior, and Mary his wife, left for New England, where they arrived on May 10, 1644, and where he became, as he had been, a person of considerable influence. He was promoted to the rank of Major-General in the colony, and died March 19, 1686-7, æt. 75. For further mention of him, see Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Let. 143. and Note; Thurloe's State Papers, vol. iv. pp. 6. 440. 449.; vol. v. p. 509.; vol. vi. p. 362. He is spoken of, says Mr. Thornton, by an authority of the time, as a "Kentish soldier." Colonel Charles Gookin, whom Penn sent as a governor to his colony, is described by the latter in a letter, dated London, Sept. 28, 1708, as "of years and experience," "and of what they call a good family, his grandfather Sir Vincent Gookin having been an early great planter in Ireland, in King James First's and the first Charles's days." Governor Gookin assumed his duties in Pennsylvania in 1708, and was recalled in 1717. He was never married.

In a letter dated Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1709, Governor Gookin writes to a grandson of Major-General Daniel Gookin, of New England: "I assure you that the account you gave me of that part of our family settled in America was extremely satisfactory;" and again, Nov. 22, 1710, to the same he says: "By a letter from Ireland I am informed two of our relatives are lately dead, viz. Robert Gookin, son of my uncle Robert, and Augustine Gookin, eldest son of my uncle Charles." He subscribes himself "cousin," &c.

From Mr. Thornton's account, and the remarks of your correspondent, I think I may venture to deduce the following table:—

EDWARD ARMSTRONG,
Recording Secretary of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia, July 2. 1851.

The inscription on the tombstone of Christ. Burraway, in Martham Church, copied by your correspondent E. S. T., singular as it is, and startling as the story attached to it seems, is not without a parallel, for we have a similar inscription on another mysterious mother of the name of Marulla in ancient times, which is given by Boxhornius in his Monumenta Illustrium Virorum et Elogia, Amst. 1638, fol. 112. He appears to have found it on a ruined sarcophagus at Rome, of which he has given representation, and in his Index thus refers to it:

"Hersilus cum Marulla, quæ ei mater, soror, et sponsa fuit."

Your correspondent has not mentioned the source of his explanation of the enigma: I presume it is traditional. The ancient inscription, it will be seen, solves it in the last two lines. The coincidence of these two inscriptions is not a little remarkable.

"SENICAPRI QVICVMQVE SVBIS SACRARIA FAVNI HÆC LEGE ROMANA VERBA NOTATA MANV. HERSILVS HIC IACEO MECVM MARVLLA QVIESCIT QVÆ SOROR ET GENITRIX, QVÆ MIHI SPONSA FVIT VERA NEGAS, FRONTEMQVE TRAHIS: ENIYGMATA SPHYNGOS CREDIS, SVNT PYTHIO VERA MAGIS TRIPODE. ME PATER E NATA GENVIT, MIHI IVNGITVR ILLA, SIC SOROR ET CONIVNCX, SIC FVIT ILLA PARENS."

In that entertaining volume La Sylva Curiosa de Julian de Medrano, Cavallero Navarro, first printed in 1583, and reprinted at Paris in 1608, a somewhat similar story is related, and the monumental inscription in French is given. Some of these stories must surely be apocryphal.[2]

"Passing through the Bourbonnese country I was told, that many years since a young gentleman there had, by some fortuitous accident, lain with his own mother, who became pregnant by him. That some time after, a favourable opportunity offering, he went to the wars, and was absent from his home some fourteen or fifteen years. At the expiration of that time returning home, he found his mother well stricken in years, who had a few days previous taken into her service a handsome lass, who had been brought up from infancy in the mountains of Auvergne. This young woman being of a naturally affectionate disposition, seemed much attached to her mistress, and relieved her of all her household cares, without knowing how nearly they were related; for she was her daughter, the fruit of the intercourse with her son, now master of the house; notwithstanding there was no one in those parts that knew it. The young man seeing her virtuous, graceful, and handsome, became enamored of her, in so much that, although his relations wished him to marry a rich wife, and all that his friends endeavoured to divert his passion, and counselled him to bestow his love elsewhere, it was all to no purpose, but, preferring her to all others he had seen, he married her. They lived together many years, had several children, and were buried in the same tomb, without either of them having ever known that they were father and daughter, brother and sister! until after a lapse of time, a shepherd from Auvergne coming into the Bourbonnese country, told the history to the inhabitants of the place where this doubly incestuous couple lived. When I passed through the country I was shown the spot where they dwelt, and the church where they were interred; and a copy of the epitaph which was placed upon their tomb was given me, which was as follows:

[2]Stories of the same nature are told in the Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre, 3me Journée, Nouvelle 30me, where the scene is laid in Languedoc; and by Jeremy Taylor in his Ductor Dubitantium, B. i. C. iii. Sect. 3., who cites Comitolus as his authority: here the scene is laid in Venice. By others the scene has been placed in London, and also in Scotland. Horace Walpole's Postscript to his Tragedy will of course be known to most of your readers.

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham, July 28. 1851.

Having been acquainted with Mr. Hone, when a bookseller in the Strand (the firm, I think, was Hone and Bone), who published several catalogues of scarce works in poetry and the drama, I feel some interest in the question raised upon his religious principles. It was no doubt this avocation which gave to Mr. Hone that extensive circle of information, which enabled him to conduct those amusing publications, The Every-day Book, The Year Book, and The Table Book. In what way my schoolfellow Charles Lamb became acquainted with Mr. Hone I know not; but I frequently heard him speak of his misfortunes, and I was witness to his endeavours to relieve his difficulties, by requesting his acquaintance to visit the coffee-house which Mrs. Hone opened in Gracechurch Street. I may communicate hereafter some information upon the intimacy which existed between Charles Lamb and Mr. Hone; my present note being confined to some more extensive and interesting pieces of information relative to Mr. Hone's conversion from infidelity to the pure principles of Christianity, than are furnished by MR. WILLIAM BARTON. For this purpose I transcribe a letter of Mr. Hone's, descriptive of his conversion, the cause which led to it, and his earnest desire to impress upon the public mind his sincerity in the change which had taken place. A more touching picture of real conviction, and of a renewed state of mind, is not perhaps upon record, and cannot too extensively be made known. The letter appeared a few years ago in the Churchman's Penny Magazine, vol. ii. p. 154., with the initials "T. H."

"Dear Sir,

"Your kindness towards me, and the desire you express of becoming serviceable to me, require that I should be explicit as regards the circumstances under which we met, a little time ago, and have since conversed on. I think my statement should be in writing, and hence this letter.

"It has pleased the Almighty, to have dealings with me for several years, until, by His Holy Spirit, I have been brought from darkness to light; to know HIM, through faith in Christ; to rest in His love, as in the cleft of a rock, safe from the storms and afflictions of the world. To acquaint all who ever heard of my name, with this mighty change of heart, has long been my desire; and it seems to me, that I ought not to exercise my restored faculties without tendering their first fruits as an humble offering to the promotion of His cause, by testifying of His great mercy. It has been my frequent and earnest prayer to God to enable me to do this, as His doing; to seek nothing but honour to His holy name, and in the fear of Him, and Him only, without regard to the praise or dispraise of man—come from what quarter it may—to have my soul possessed in patience; to wait and be still, as a mere instrument in His hands, made willing in the day of His power, to do His work. If it be His work, He will bless it: I pray that it may be. Now, in this matter, and in this view of it, self-seeking and personal gratification are out of the question. The desire to engage in it is the most earnest wish of my heart; but my heart was submitted to God, and in submission to Him, it seeks to do His will, to do the will of my Saviour, as my Lord and my God, who has done all things for me, and will do all things well. I believe He has put the desire into my heart to do this homage to His sovereignty, as a subject of His kingdom. To do it has been the ruling purpose of my mind: as an instance of it, let me mention, that I have been frequently asked by autograph collectors to write something in their albums. For the last two years I have done nothing in this way, till the 3rd of last month, a lady having brought in her album the night before, I remembered it was my birth-day, and wrote the following lines:

"These lines, I thought, would be ill placed among contributions of different import: I therefore wrote them at the end of my Bible, and put some others, of a religious and kindly admonitory tendency, in the lady's album. Not even in the albums can I write without manifesting, that to please is less my object than to acknowledge the goodness of God. Well, then, my dear Sir, in this respect you may gather, in some degree, how it is with me, and how God has wrought upon my mind, and operates upon it to the end I speak of. When His hand struck me as for death, it was in a house of prayer, and whilst being carried from the place in men's arms as for dead, He lifted my heart to His throne of grace. During the loneliness of what seemed to be my dying bed, and the discomfort of my awful infirmity, and the ruin of my house, and family, and property, He was with me, and comforted me; and hitherto He has helped me, and I bless His holy name; my faith in Him is unshaken, and He keeps me constantly to himself; and despite of worldly affections, and nature's fear, I depend on Him and the workings of His providence, that He will never leave me nor forsake me. It has never entered my mind, even as a shadow, that I can do anything for Him; but what He enables me to do, I will do to His glory. In the dark seasons of the hidings of His face, I would wait on Him who waited for me while I resisted the drawings of His love; and when I sit in the light of His countenance, I would stand up and magnify His name before the people. And now, that He has wonderfully raised me up, after a long season of calamity, to the power of using my pen, I pray that He may direct it to tell of His mercy to me, and by what way He has brought me to acknowledge Him, 'the Lord our righteousness,' 'God blessed for ever,' at all times, and in all places, where there may be need of it. I trust I may never be ashamed to declare His Name; but readily exemplify, by His help, the courage and obedience of a Christian man, and, as a good soldier of Christ, fight the good fight with the sword of the Spirit.

"May God grant me grace to do His will, is my humble supplication. I am,

"Dear Sir,

"Yours most sincerely,

"WM. HONE."

The foregoing letter may perhaps be considered too pharasaical; but when is added to it the following note by Mr. Hone, relating the afflictions which had overtaken him, and well nigh overwhelmed him, it cannot appear surprising that when he sought comfort and relief from where alone they are to be found, his heart overflowed with thankfulness and praise.

I find the subjoined notice to his readers in Hone's Table Book, vol. ii. p. 737.:—

"Note.

"Under severe affliction I cannot make up this sheet as I wish. This day week my second son was brought home with his skull fractured. To-day intelligence has arrived to me of the death of my eldest son.

"The necessity I have been under of submitting recently to a surgical operation on myself, with a long summer of sickness to every member of my family, and accumulated troubles of earlier origin, and of another nature, have prevented me too often from satisfying the wishes of readers, and the claims of correspondents. I crave that they will be pleased to receive this as a general apology, in lieu of particular notices, and in the stead of promises to effect what I can no longer hope to accomplish, and forbear to attempt.

"WM. HONE.

"December 12. 1827."

J. M. G.

Worcester.

Mr. Hone, whose friendship I enjoyed for some years, became toward the latter part of his life a devout and humble Christian, and member of the dissenting church under the pastorate of the Rev. Thomas Binney, to which also several members of his family[3] belonged. Meeting him accidentally, about ten years since, in Great Bell Alley, London Wall, he led me to a small bookshop, kept I think by one of his daughters, and showed me part of a pamphlet he was then engaged upon, relative to his own religious life and experience, as I understood him. This, I believe, has never appeared, though he published in 1841 The early Life and Conversion of William Hone, of Ripley,[4] his father.

[3] "His wife, four daughters, and a son-in-law."

[4] London: T. Ward and Co. 8vo. pp. 48.

At p. 46. of this interesting narrative, he subjoins an extract from a new edition of Simpson's Plea for Religion, printed for Jackson and Walford, describing the happy change which had taken place in his own mind. To this account, written, as Mr. Hone says, "by a very dear friend who knows me intimately," he sets his affirmation; so that there can be no doubt of its accuracy.

A Life of William Hone, by one who could treat it philosophically, would be so deeply interesting, that I am surprised it has never been undertaken. "The history of my three days' trials in Guildhall," says he, "may be dug out from the journals of the period: the history of my mind and heart, my scepticism, my atheism, and God's final dealings with me, remains to be written. If my life be prolonged a few months, the work may appear in my lifetime." This was written June 3, 1841. Was any progress, and what, made in it?

Who so fit to "gather up the fragments," as his late pastor, Mr. Binney, the deeply thoughtful author of one of our best biographies extant, the Life of Sir T. F. Buxton?

DOUGLAS ALLPORT.

[The concluding words of our correspondent are calculated to mislead our readers. The Life of Sir T. F. Buxton is by his son; whereas Mr. Binney's is merely a sketch of his character, with that of other eminent individuals, published, we believe, in a small pamphlet.]

I can assure A LOWLANDER that the reviewer's story is quite true, it being gathered from Sir John Sinclair, who, in a letter to Mr. Pinkerton, dated in May, 1796, says:

"It is well known that the philibeg was invented by an Englishman in Lochabar, about sixty years ago, who naturally thought his workmen would be more active in that light petticoat than in the belted plaid; and that it was more decent to wear it than to have no clothing at all, which was the case with some of those employed by him in cutting down the woods in Lochabar."—See Pinkerton's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 404.

I never understood that there was any presumed antiquity about the philibeg or kilt. In the Encyclopædia Britannica it is described as a "modern substitute" for the lower part of the plaid.

Presuming, that I have settled this point, I will pass to the original Query of a JUROR, p. 7., still quoting Pinkerton:

"There is very little doubt but that the 'Tartan' passed from Flanders (whence all our articles came) to the Lowlands in the fifteenth century, and thence to the Highlands. It is never mentioned before the latter part of that century. It first occurs in the accompts of James III., 1474, and seems to have passed from England; for the 'rouge tartarin' in the statutes of the Order of the Bath in the time of Edward IV. (apud Upton de Re Milit.) is surely red tartan, or cloth with red stripes of various shades."

Again—

"As to the plaid, there is no reason to believe it more ancient than the philibeg. In the sixteenth century Fordun (lib. ii. cap. 9.) only mentions the Highland people as 'amictu deformis,' a term conveying the idea of a vague savage dress of skins.

"In the book of dress printed at Paris in 1562, the Highland chief is in the Irish dress wearing a mantle. The woman is dressed in sheep and deer skins. Lesley, in 1570, is the first who mentions the modern Highland dress, but represents the tartan as even then being exclusively confined to the use of people of rank.

"Buchanan, 1580, mentions the plaids, but says they are brown; even as late as 1715 the remote Highlanders were only clothed in a long coat buttoned down to the mid-leg; this information was derived from the minister of Mulmearn (father of the Professor Ferguson), who said 'that those Highlanders who joined the Pretender from the most remote parts, were not dressed in party-coloured tartans, and had neither plaid nor philibeg.'"

So much for the assumed antiquity of the Scottish national costume. More interesting matter on this subject will be found in Pinkerton's Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 404-410.

BLOWEN.

Whatever be the fate of The Caxton Memorial, as suggested by myself, the proposition is clear of interested motives. I neither aspire to the honours of a patron, nor to the honours of editorship. To revive the memory of the man, and to illustrate the literature of the period, are my sole objects.

I have to thank MR. BOTFIELD for his polite information. I was aware of the meeting of the 9th of July 1849, but not aware that the proposal of a statue of Caxton had been entertained at so early a date. The proceedings of the meeting, as reported in The Times, were confined to the question of subscriptions: on the statue question there is not the slightest hint.

The advocacy of a fictitious statue by so eminent an antiquary as MR. BOTFIELD, and the assurance which he gives that this object has been under consideration for at least two years, make it the more imperative on me to state my objections to it; and this I shall do with reference to his own arguments.

A maxim of the illustrious sir William Jones very apposite to the point in dispute, has floated in my memory from early life. It is this: "The best monument that can be erected to a man of literary talents is a good edition of his works." Such a man was William Caxton; and on this principle I would proceed. He would then owe the extension of his fame to the admirable art which he so successfully practised.

In the opinion of MR. BOTFIELD, the expense attendant on my project would be "fatal to its success." Now, as the Shakespeare Society prints at the rate of four volumes for a subscription of 1l., the committee of the Caxton Memorial could surely produce one volume for 10s. 6d. I should not advise any attempt at splendour. Paper such as Caxton would have chosen, a clear type, and extreme accuracy of text, are more important objects. Competent editors would soon offer their services; and, proud to have their names associated with so desirable an enterprise, would perform their parts with correspondent care and ability. Besides, it is easier to collect subscriptions, when you can promise a substantial return.

To the other objections of MR. BOTFIELD, I shall reply more briefly. The biography of Caxton by Lewis is a very scarce book; and, in the opinion of Dibdin, "among the dullest of all biographical memoirs." As to that by MR. KNIGHT, only one fourth part of it relates to Caxton. In the Typographical antiquities we certainly have "copious extracts from his works;" but they are mixed up with much superfluity of disquisition. Whether such a memorial would be "hidden in a bookcase," must depend on the taste of the possessor. It would be accessible in the four quarters of the globe—which is as much as can be said of other books, and more than can be said of a statue.

I cannot admit the propriety of viewing Caxton as a mere printer. By continental writers he is more correctly appreciated. M. de la Serna calls him "homme de lettres, artiste renommé," etc.; and M. Suard observes, "dans presque tous les ouvrages imprimés par lui, il a inséré quelques lignes qui toujours attestent la pureté des intentions dont il était animé."

The advocates of a fictitious statue of Caxton have been apprized of my intention, and if certain estimable antiquaries should prove to be of the number, they must consider my opposition as the consequence of general principles.

It should be the object of antiquaries to illustrate "the history of former times"—as we read in a royal charter—not to substitute fiction for history. Now, it is admitted by MR. BOTFIELD that there is "no authentic portrait of Caxton." How then, he must allow me to ask, can it be assumed that the picture by Maclise is truthful? It may be much otherwise. Modern artists are no guides for antiquaries.

It is with statues as it is with medals. The first and most obvious use of them, as Addison remarks of the latter objects, is "the showing us the faces" of eminent persons. Even Horace Walpole, who has misled so many with regard to Caxton, has expressed himself very forcibly on the value of real portraits. If a statue fail in that particular, it is worthless; and should my own project find no favour with the public—a fountain by day—or, a light by night—or, an inscribed obelisk—or, even an inscribed tablet—would be far preferable as a monument.

If the dean of St. Paul's should resolve to place in other hands the sum which has been collected for this purpose, he may justly insist on the proper application of it; and as the Society of Arts may be induced to take charge of it, I must remind them of the circumstance under which the subscriptions were formerly obtained. It was assumed that a likeness of Caxton had been preserved. I transcribe from The Times:—

The meeting, [12 June, 1847] appeared to have been gratified with what they had seen and heard, and he [lord Morpeth] had only now to say to them, and to their fellow-countrymen in every part of the world, 'Subscribe.' (Applause.)

"A miniature portrait of Caxton, painted upon enamel by Mr. Bone, was handed to lord Morpeth, who stated that it had been copied from a likeness of Caxton, in an old illuminated MS."

His lordship was misinformed as to the authenticity of the portrait, it being copied from the Lambeth Ms.—but that circumstance does not affect the argument.

It is manifest, therefore, that a fictitious statue of Caxton, objectionable as it would be on other accounts, would also be very like a breach of faith with the original subscribers.

BOLTON CORNEY.

[MR. E. P. RICHARDS presents his compliments to the Editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES," and will thank him to insert the accompanying statement by the Marchioness of Bute, in respect to the lines said to have been written by her sister, Lady Flora Hastings, in the next number of his paper.

Cardiff, Aug. 5. 1851.]

A friend has copied and sent to me a passage in the paper named "NOTES AND QUERIES," of Saturday, July 19. 1851, No. 90. page 44.

The passage refers to my sister, Lady Flora Hastings, and a poem ascribed to her. If it were a matter solely of literary nature, I should not have interfered; considering the point in debate may not be interesting to a very extended circle of persons. But I feel it is a duty not to allow an undeserved imputation to rest on any one, especially on one styled a "Christian lady." Probably no person but myself can place the debated question beyond doubt. I do not know who the "Christian lady" or who ERZA may be; but the lines entitled "Lady Flora Hastings' Bequest" are not by Lady Flora Hastings. She solemnly bequeathed all her papers and manuscripts to me, and those verses are not amongst them; else they should have been included in the volume of her poems which I published. Moreover, Lady Flora Hastings never parted with her Bible till, by my brother's desire, I had warned her on the authority of the physicians that any hour might close her existence on earth. She was then unable to read it to herself. It was to me (not to my brother, as stated by CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH) that she confided the book and the message for our mother; and when she did so, she was too weak in body to have committed the simple words of the message to paper. I was with her night and day for many days before she gave the gift and message to my care, and she died in my arms. She could not have composed any verses, or written a word, or dictated a sentence, without my knowledge, for more than a week before she died.

S. F. C. BUTE AND DUMFRIES.

Largo House, Fife, July 30. 1851.

—I would suggest that the 31st chapter of Genesis may solve this riddle. We have in the latter part of that chapter the account of a covenant entered into between Jacob and Laban, and we are there told that a pillar was erected as a witness between them of this covenant; Jacob calling it Galeed, also Mizpah. May not the inscription on the board be a token of some covenant of the same kind; and may it not have been placed on a pillar, or on some conspicuous place on the exterior of the house, or over the mantel in some room of the house (this latter being suggested in the article describing the board)? If I am correct, the name of the person who did "indite" the inscription should be one which, if not spelt exactly like Galeed or Mizpah, would in sound resemble the one or the other.

H. H. B.

Monte Cavallo, South Carolina.

—In the Episcopal churches of our country this custom is religiously observed; the foliage of the holly, cedar, and pine being chiefly used for this purpose at the south, together with artificial flowers. At Easter also most of the same churches are decorated, though some are not; and at that season natural flowers are also used for the purpose, mingled with the evergreen foliage of the trees mentioned above.

H. H. B.

Monte Cavallo, South Carolina.

—The letter addressed by King George IV. to the Earl of Liverpool, referred to in the above page, will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1823, page 161. It is dated from the Pavilion, Brighton, on the 15th of the preceding month.

The Committee, in their Parliamentary Report, state that the king had accompanied his munificent donation of this library to the public, "with the gift of a valuable selection of coins and medals;" and they close their Report in the following words:

"The Committee would not do justice to the sentiments with which they are affected, if they failed to express in the strongest terms the gratitude they feel, in common with the nation, for the act of munificent liberality which has brought this subject under their consideration, and for the disposition which is so strongly evinced by that act, on the part of his Majesty, of promoting, by the best means, the science and literature of the country."

Would all this have been said, if the value of the library, in "pounds sterling" was, as has been alleged, to be made good by the country to its late owner?

When urging that this library, containing about 65,000 volumes, might have been preserved at Whitehall, or in some other part of Westminster, as a distinct collection, it may be stated, that on its removal to the Museum, 21,000 duplicates were found in the united libraries, but that "it was not considered advisable to part with more than 12,000; which should be taken from books in the Museum." Why should not the Museum have retained its duplicates, leaving those in the royal library for the benefit of readers in another part of the metropolis? Was the expense of a separate establishment the great obstacle?

J. H. M.

—ENSIS asks, "What is the usual test of a good blade?" The proof by striking on the surface of smooth water, is not uncommon in India; though, in my opinion, it is a very inefficient one, and there is no doubt that "the Toledo blades in the Crystal Palace" would stand it as well as any others of moderate goodness. "The Toledo blades that roll up in a circle" can be as easily made in England as in Spain, but they are useless toys: there is an English one in the Exhibition, Class viii., Case 200., which fits into the circular Toledo scabbard placed above it; but they are only curious to the uninitiated. What, then, is an efficient proof? I reply, first strike the flat side of the blade on an iron table (by means of a machine) with a force of 300 to 400 lbs., and then on the edge and back over a round piece of hard wood with a force of 400 to 500 lbs.: after which thrust the point as hard as possible against a thick iron plate and through a cuirass, without turning or breaking it, and bend so as to reduce the length in the proportion of about one inch and a half to a foot. When thus proved, a sword may be relied on, and the operation may be seen every day at 27. Pall Mall.

HENRY WILKINSON.

—In reply to W. F. S. of Surbiton it appears, from the most authentic biographical accounts of Dr. Young, that he had not any daughters, and only one son; and that the Narcissa of the Night Thoughts was a daughter of his wife (Lady Elizabeth Lee), by her former husband, Colonel Lee. The writer in the Evangelical Magazine must therefore have written in ignorance of these facts when he termed Narcissa Dr. Young's daughter: or he may have spoken, in a loose way, of the daughter-in-law as the daughter.

J. M.

—Having recently had occasion to look into the works of Bede, I have found, in lib. iv., De Elementis Philosophiæ, the passage which was the subject of my Query. Though not strictly in accordance with the established fact of the circulation of the blood, it will yet be allowed to be a near approximation to it. It is as follows:—

"Sanguine in epate generato, per venas ad omnia transit membra, calore quorum digestus, in eorum similitudinem transit: superfluitas, vero, partim per sudorem exit, alia vero pars ad epar revertitur, ibi decocta cum urina exit descendens, sedimenque vocatur; sed si in fundo sit urinæ dicitur hypostasis; si in medio, eneortim: si in summo nephile."—Bedæ Opera, vol. ii. p. 339., ed. Basiliæ, MDLXIII.

J. MN.

—There is still some obscurity about the publication of the remaining volumes of this important work, notwithstanding DR. TODD'S prompt communication on the subject. He speaks of the 14th volume half printed off, and asks for information which may assist him in completing it; and then announces that highly desirable addition, viz. an Index, which is to form the 17th volume; but of the projected contents of vols. xv. and xvi., he says nothing.[5]

[5] Vols. xv. and xvi., consisting of Letters to and from Archbishop Ussher, were published early in 1849.

In spite of Dr. Elrington's rejection of the Body of Divinity (which is doubtless what DR. TODD refers to under the name of the System of Theology), I would still venture to plead for at least an uniform edition of it; for there is surely much force in the testimony of Dr. N. Bernard (as quoted by Mr. Goode), that, whilst the Archbishop was "indeed displeased at the publishing of it, without his knowledge, but hearing of some good fruit which hath been reaped by it, he hath permitted it."

"Several other editions, therefore," (Mr. Goode adds) "were published in his lifetime; and being thus published with his permission, must of course be considered as in all important points of doctrine representing his views."—Effects of Infant Baptism, pp. 312, 313.

Possibly some of your correspondents might be able to throw light on this point.

It will scarcely be travelling out of the record to entreat that the Index may be printed on anything but the dazzling milled paper, which everybody I should think must detest.

C. W. B.

—J. H. S. will find this question raised in the The closing Years of Dean Swift's Life, by W. R. Wilde, M.R.I.A.:—

"That Stella was the daughter of Sir Wm. Temple appears more than probable; but that Swift was his son, and consequently her half brother, remains to be proved. It has, it is true, been often surmised, from the date of Orrery's book to the present time, but we cannot discover in the supposition anything but vague conjecture."

Mr. Wilde, however, proceeds to quote in favour of the opinion from an article in The Gentleman's and London Magazine, pp. 555. to 560., Dublin. Printed for John Exshaw, Nov. 1757.

It is signed C. M. P. G. N. S. T. N. S.

†

—The mistletoe is common on almost every tree of our Southern forests; it is abundant on all the varieties of the oak, and grows most luxuriously on the trees near our watercourses. I have seen some of our deciduous trees looking almost as green in winter as when clothed in their own foliage in summer, in consequence of the quantity of mistletoe growing upon them.

H. H. B.

Monte Cavallo, South Carolina.

—The match of Kyme with Cicely, second daughter of Edward the Fourth, and widow of John, Lord Welles, is mentioned by Anderson, Yorke, Brooke, and Vincent; but these writers agree that she had no issue by this marriage.

BOLD is probably aware that there are a few descents of the family of Kyme of Stickford, coming down to the latter end of the sixteenth century, to be found in a "Visitation of Lincolnshire," Harl. MS. No. 1550., fo. 60. b.

The following notice of some supposed descendants of the ancient family of Kyme, is given in Thompson's History of Boston, 4to. Lond. 1820, pp. 173. to 176.:

"Richmond Rochford, or Kyme Tower.

"At what time this estate passed from the Kyme family has not been ascertained: it fell into the hands of the crown by sequestration, in consequence of some political transgression of its owner, and is now the property of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. The descendants of the ancient owners, however, continued to occupy the estate as tenants, until 1816.[6]

"The tower is situated about two miles east of Boston.... An old house adjoining the Tower was taken down a few years since: in this house were several old portraits, said to be of the Kyme family: there were also three coats of arms, with different bearings, but with this same motto: 'In cruce nostra salus.'"

[6] Adlard Kyme was tenant 1709.

If BOLD will communicate his address to the editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES," I will with much pleasure forward to him some further information respecting the descendants of the Kymes of Kyme Tower.

LLEWELLYN.

—In answer to your correspondent H. M., I beg to state that Sir Edward Leman, Baronet, resides at Nottingham. He tried his right as to the baronetcy at the Canongate Court in Edinburgh, in the year 1842, and was gazetted as the legal baronet and rightful descendant of Sir Tanfeild Leman, who succeeded Sir William Lenten of Northaw. I have the original gazette and a certified court copy of the proceedings on the occasion, which I shall be happy to show your correspondent, with all other information and papers relative to the Leman family, if he will favour me with his address.

J. R.

39. Windmill Street, Haymarket.

—The benefit derived by your correspondent E. S. TAYLOR from the snuff of a candle, was owing to the minute quantity of creosote contained in each dose. Dr. Elliotson tried the same nauseous remedy with partial success at St. Thomas's Hospital, some years since.

J. N. T.

• BUDDEN'S LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP MORTON, 1607.
• THOMAS LYTE'S ANCIENT BALLADS AND SONGS. 12mo. 1827.
• DODWELL (HENRY, M.A.), DISCOURSE PROVING FROM SCRIPTURES THAT THE SOUL IS A PRINCIPLE NATURALLY MORTAL, &c.
• REFLECTIONS ON MR. BURCHET'S MEMOIRS; or, Remarks on his Account of Captain Wilmot's Expedition to the West Indies, by Colonel Luke Lillingston, 1704.
• GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. Vol. I. 1731.
• NEW ENGLAND JUDGED, NOT BY MAN'S BUT BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD, &c. By George Bishope. 1661. 4to. Wanted from p. 150. to the end.
• REASON AND JUDGMENT, OR SPECIAL REMARQUES OF THE LIFE OF THE RENOWNED DR. SANDERSON, LATE LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 1663. Sm. 4to. Wanted from p. 90. to the end.
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• MALLAY, ESSAI SUR LES EGLISES ROMAINES ET BYZANTINES DU PUY DE DOME. 1 Vol. folio. 51 Plates.
• AN ACCOUNT OF THE REMAINS OF THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS, to which is added a Discourse thereon, as connected with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients. London, 1786. 4to. By R. Payne Knight.
• CH. THILLON'S (Professor of Halle) NOUVELLE COLLECTION DES APOCRYPHES, AUGMENTÉ, &c. Leipsic, 1832.
• COURS DE PHILOSOPHIE POSITIVE, par Auguste Comte. 6 Vols. 8vo.
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• REPORT ON THE BENGAL MILITARY FUND, by F. G. P. Neison. Published in 1849.
• THREE REPORTS, by Mr. Griffith Davies, Actuary to the Guardian, viz.:
• Report on the Bombay Civil Fund, published 1836.
• —— —— —— Bengal Medical Retiring Fund, published 1839.
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NOTES AND QUERIES IN AMERICA. Our present Number contains several communications from America. The gratification which we experienced in receiving in these communications proof of our increasing circulation, and consequently of our extended usefulness, was greatly increased by the kind manner in which our Transatlantic brethren expressed themselves (in the private notes which they addressed to us) as to the favourable manner in which our paper has been received in the United States. To be the means of promoting in any degree increased intercommunication between the different members of the great literary brotherhood of England and America is surely a matter of which we may justly feel proud.

E. S. T. We fully agree in the propriety of the suggestion so kindly made by our correspondent, and should be glad to see it carried out—but we fear it is quite impracticable.

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      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. I.                                   |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.     | Date, Year        | Pages     | PG # xxxxx  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No.  1 | November  3, 1849 |   1 -  17 | PG #  8603  |
      | Vol. I No.  2 | November 10, 1849 |  18 -  32 | PG # 11265  |
      | Vol. I No.  3 | November 17, 1849 |  33 -  46 | PG # 11577  |
      | Vol. I No.  4 | November 24, 1849 |  49 -  63 | PG # 13513  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No.  5 | December  1, 1849 |  65 -  80 | PG # 11636  |
      | Vol. I No.  6 | December  8, 1849 |  81 -  95 | PG # 13550  |
      | Vol. I No.  7 | December 15, 1849 |  97 - 112 | PG # 11651  |
      | Vol. I No.  8 | December 22, 1849 | 113 - 128 | PG # 11652  |
      | Vol. I No.  9 | December 29, 1849 | 130 - 144 | PG # 13521  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 10 | January   5, 1850 | 145 - 160 | PG #        |
      | Vol. I No. 11 | January  12, 1850 | 161 - 176 | PG # 11653  |
      | Vol. I No. 12 | January  19, 1850 | 177 - 192 | PG # 11575  |
      | Vol. I No. 13 | January  26, 1850 | 193 - 208 | PG # 11707  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 14 | February  2, 1850 | 209 - 224 | PG # 13558  |
      | Vol. I No. 15 | February  9, 1850 | 225 - 238 | PG # 11929  |
      | Vol. I No. 16 | February 16, 1850 | 241 - 256 | PG # 16193  |
      | Vol. I No. 17 | February 23, 1850 | 257 - 271 | PG # 12018  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 18 | March     2, 1850 | 273 - 288 | PG # 13544  |
      | Vol. I No. 19 | March     9, 1850 | 289 - 309 | PG # 13638  |
      | Vol. I No. 20 | March    16, 1850 | 313 - 328 | PG # 16409  |
      | Vol. I No. 21 | March    23, 1850 | 329 - 343 | PG # 11958  |
      | Vol. I No. 22 | March    30, 1850 | 345 - 359 | PG # 12198  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 23 | April     6, 1850 | 361 - 376 | PG # 12505  |
      | Vol. I No. 24 | April    13, 1850 | 377 - 392 | PG # 13925  |
      | Vol. I No. 25 | April    20, 1850 | 393 - 408 | PG # 13747  |
      | Vol. I No. 26 | April    27, 1850 | 409 - 423 | PG # 13822  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 27 | May       4, 1850 | 425 - 447 | PG # 13712  |
      | Vol. I No. 28 | May      11, 1850 | 449 - 463 | PG # 13684  |
      | Vol. I No. 29 | May      18, 1850 | 465 - 479 | PG # 15197  |
      | Vol. I No. 30 | May      25, 1850 | 481 - 495 | PG # 13713  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. II.                                  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.      | Date, Year         | Pages   | PG # xxxxx  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 31 | June  1, 1850      |   1- 15 | PG # 12589  |
      | Vol. II No. 32 | June  8, 1850      |  17- 32 | PG # 15996  |
      | Vol. II No. 33 | June 15, 1850      |  33- 48 | PG # 26121  |
      | Vol. II No. 34 | June 22, 1850      |  49- 64 | PG # 22127  |
      | Vol. II No. 35 | June 29, 1850      |  65- 79 | PG # 22126  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 36 | July  6, 1850      |  81- 96 | PG # 13361  |
      | Vol. II No. 37 | July 13, 1850      |  97-112 | PG # 13729  |
      | Vol. II No. 38 | July 20, 1850      | 113-128 | PG # 13362  |
      | Vol. II No. 39 | July 27, 1850      | 129-143 | PG # 13736  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 40 | August  3, 1850    | 145-159 | PG # 13389  |
      | Vol. II No. 41 | August 10, 1850    | 161-176 | PG # 13393  |
      | Vol. II No. 42 | August 17, 1850    | 177-191 | PG # 13411  |
      | Vol. II No. 43 | August 24, 1850    | 193-207 | PG # 13406  |
      | Vol. II No. 44 | August 31, 1850    | 209-223 | PG # 13426  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 45 | September  7, 1850 | 225-240 | PG # 13427  |
      | Vol. II No. 46 | September 14, 1850 | 241-256 | PG # 13462  |
      | Vol. II No. 47 | September 21, 1850 | 257-272 | PG # 13936  |
      | Vol. II No. 48 | September 28, 1850 | 273-288 | PG # 13463  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 49 | October  5, 1850   | 289-304 | PG # 13480  |
      | Vol. II No. 50 | October 12, 1850   | 305-320 | PG # 13551  |
      | Vol. II No. 51 | October 19, 1850   | 321-351 | PG # 15232  |
      | Vol. II No. 52 | October 26, 1850   | 353-367 | PG # 22624  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 53 | November  2, 1850  | 369-383 | PG # 13540  |
      | Vol. II No. 54 | November  9, 1850  | 385-399 | PG # 22138  |
      | Vol. II No. 55 | November 16, 1850  | 401-415 | PG # 15216  |
      | Vol. II No. 56 | November 23, 1850  | 417-431 | PG # 15354  |
      | Vol. II No. 57 | November 30, 1850  | 433-454 | PG # 15405  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 58 | December  7, 1850  | 457-470 | PG # 21503  |
      | Vol. II No. 59 | December 14, 1850  | 473-486 | PG # 15427  |
      | Vol. II No. 60 | December 21, 1850  | 489-502 | PG # 24803  |
      | Vol. II No. 61 | December 28, 1850  | 505-524 | PG # 16404  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. III.                                 |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.       | Date, Year        | Pages   | PG # xxxxx  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 62 | January  4, 1851  |   1- 15 | PG # 15638  |
      | Vol. III No. 63 | January 11, 1851  |  17- 31 | PG # 15639  |
      | Vol. III No. 64 | January 18, 1851  |  33- 47 | PG # 15640  |
      | Vol. III No. 65 | January 25, 1851  |  49- 78 | PG # 15641  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 66 | February  1, 1851 |  81- 95 | PG # 22339  |
      | Vol. III No. 67 | February  8, 1851 |  97-111 | PG # 22625  |
      | Vol. III No. 68 | February 15, 1851 | 113-127 | PG # 22639  |
      | Vol. III No. 69 | February 22, 1851 | 129-159 | PG # 23027  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 70 | March  1, 1851    | 161-174 | PG # 23204  |
      | Vol. III No. 71 | March  8, 1851    | 177-200 | PG # 23205  |
      | Vol. III No. 72 | March 15, 1851    | 201-215 | PG # 23212  |
      | Vol. III No. 73 | March 22, 1851    | 217-231 | PG # 23225  |
      | Vol. III No. 74 | March 29, 1851    | 233-255 | PG # 23282  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 75 | April  5, 1851    | 257-271 | PG # 23402  |
      | Vol. III No. 76 | April 12, 1851    | 273-294 | PG # 26896  |
      | Vol. III No. 77 | April 19, 1851    | 297-311 | PG # 26897  |
      | Vol. III No. 78 | April 26, 1851    | 313-342 | PG # 26898  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 79 | May  3, 1851      | 345-359 | PG # 26899  |
      | Vol. III No. 80 | May 10, 1851      | 361-382 | PG # 32495  |
      | Vol. III No. 81 | May 17, 1851      | 385-399 | PG # 29318  |
      | Vol. III No. 82 | May 24, 1851      | 401-415 | PG # 28311  |
      | Vol. III No. 83 | May 31, 1851      | 417-440 | PG # 36835  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 84 | June  7, 1851     | 441-472 | PG # 37379  |
      | Vol. III No. 85 | June 14, 1851     | 473-488 | PG # 37403  |
      | Vol. III No. 86 | June 21, 1851     | 489-511 | PG # 37496  |
      | Vol. III No. 87 | June 28, 1851     | 513-528 | PG # 37516  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. IV.                                  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.       | Date, Year        | Pages   | PG # xxxxx  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. IV No. 88  | July  5, 1851     |   1- 15 | PG # 37548  |
      | Vol. IV No. 89  | July 12, 1851     |  17- 31 | PG # 37568  |
      | Vol. IV No. 90  | July 19, 1851     |  33- 47 | PG # 37593  |
      | Vol. IV No. 91  | July 26, 1851     |  49- 79 | PG # 37778  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. IV No. 92  | August  2, 1851   |  81- 94 | PG # 38324  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol I. Index. [Nov. 1849-May 1850]            | PG # 13536  |
      | INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME. MAY-DEC., 1850    | PG # 13571  |
      | INDEX TO THE THIRD VOLUME. JAN.-JUNE, 1851    | PG # 26770  |
      +-----------------------------------------------+-------------+